During the telecast of Sunday’s Pocono 400 Nascar race, Twitter ran seven, 15-second commercials spotlighting activity on and around the racetrack. One ad showed Nascar driver Brad Keselowski taking a photo of himself from inside his race car. “See what he sees,” said the commercial’s tagline. Another ad showed a close up of a rapid-fire tire change in the pits, with the line, “What they see is what you get.”

Gabriel Stricker, a Twitter spokesman, said “a 15-second spot is the on-air equivalent of a 140-character tweet.” He declined to say whether Sunday’s ads were a one-time arrangement or a launchpad for future TV ads.

Twitter has long had a close connection with Nascar, and the pair took their relationship to a new level for Sunday’s race in Pennsylvania. During the event, Twitter employees helped collect tweets and photos from Nascar drivers, officials, reporters and fans into a Twitter website, and the telecast included select posts about the drivers on screen.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and other executives also have touted the company’s business relationship around Nascar. At the Daytona 500 race in February, Tide detergent was used to clean up after spilled fuel caught fire on the track, and Tide parent company Procter & Gamble bought Twitter ads to spotlight a photo of workmen spreading its detergent on the track.

But in Silicon Valley culture, using TV ads to promote a start-up is typically scorned, or seen as a sign a tech company is losing its appeal.

A Twitter spokesman declined to comment. Twitter also declined to say how much the company paid for the TV spots, which aired on Time Warner’s TNT cable network. A Time Warner spokesman declined to comment on the cost of the Twitter ads.

One of Sunday’s Twitter poster boys, Keselowski, already received a lot of Twitter attention in February, when he posted on Twitter a photo of a fiery crash at the Daytona 500 – from behind the wheel of his car. Alas, in Sunday’s race, he finished in 18th place.